Character sheet at the end of the PHB

[Millstone85]

Dumb question time.

Why is there a character sheet at the end of the PHB?

Is it a memento of what the default official character sheet used to be in this edition?

We are not actually supposed to use it, are we?

[Lokilence]

Back in the day we photocopied them and filled it in with a pen.

... on the photocopied paper.

yes it's for us old fogies

[JellyPooga]

Back in the day we photocopied them and filled it in with a pen.

... on the photocopied paper.

yes it's for us old fogies

Psh. Photocopies were for those kids and their new-fangled copying machines. Waaay back in the day, we made copies by hand!

[treecko]

Psh. Photocopies were for those kids and their new-fangled copying machines. Waaay back in the day, we made copies by hand!

To be honest, I make most of my sheets by hand because I'm too lazy to print them out and I know what info I need.

[Tanarii]

Psh. Photocopies were for those kids and their new-fangled copying machines. Waaay back in the day, we made copies by hand!No kidding. I still do my character sheets by hand. For a little while in 4e I used the new fangled online Character Builder, but I much prefer by hand.

I'll cheat for a spellcaster though. I make a cliff's notes version of those in a txt file as soon as it's more than a handful of them on a given character.

[MaxWilson]

To be honest, I make most of my sheets by hand because I'm too lazy to print them out and I know what info I need.

Precisely. I doodle NPC stats on the back of the programs at church and in the margins of my work notebook.

I think I tend to underestimate the value of character sheets to other people, though. I'm beginning to think one of my players would probably benefit from having his attack bonus written out explicitly--he tends to forget about things like proficiency bonus, and winds up gimping himself.

[RulesJD]

Psh. Photocopies were for those kids and their new-fangled copying machines. Waaay back in the day, we made copies by hand!

*ahem*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZbqAMEwtOE

Worth it.

[Toofey]

Precisely. I doodle NPC stats on the back of the programs at church and in the margins of my work notebook.

I think I tend to underestimate the value of character sheets to other people, though. I'm beginning to think one of my players would probably benefit from having his attack bonus written out explicitly--he tends to forget about things like proficiency bonus, and winds up gimping himself.

Some players refuse to be helped, I had a player who recalculated his Thac0 pretty much every time because he could never find it in his (crazy person bundle of scribbled paper) notebook. I loved him and he was a good player, but damn't write your Thac0 down.

[Occasional Sage]

*ahem*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZbqAMEwtOE

Worth it.

I was able to watch half of that.

I want to punch every one of them except perhaps, PERHAPS the stenographer. Then perhaps I will feel better enough to not light them all on fire.

[Belac93]

Well, I usually scribble down to basics in my notebook (More like design the entire character), and then I finalize it on either a handwritten character sheet or a textedit file. If I'm feeling fancy and have ink, I'll print off a sheet. And even that is only when I'm going to use the character for a game.

[EvilAnagram]

I was able to watch half of that.

I want to punch every one of them except perhaps, PERHAPS the stenographer. Then perhaps I will feel better enough to not light them all on fire.

Stick with it. The punchline is worth it.

[Occasional Sage]

Stick with it. The punchline is worth it.

Yup. Punchline was worth the pain.

Still want to beat senseless and perhaps ignite everybody involved, excepting (most of the time) the poor stenographer forced to witness the whole scene.

[Foxhound438]

*ahem*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZbqAMEwtOE

Worth it.

absolute champion of weaseling.

[Millstone85]

That was a pretty funny video.

Jokes aside, I suppose that it makes sense for the PHB to provide an example of character sheet.

[huttj509]

Yup. Punchline was worth the pain.

Still want to beat senseless and perhaps ignite everybody involved, excepting (most of the time) the poor stenographer forced to witness the whole scene.

The context does actually make sense.

http://loweringthebar.net/2011/03/followup-on-the-great-photocopy-dispute.html

County wanted to charge per page for copying records to a CD the same as it cost to photocopy the pages. However, the law only specified they could charge for photocopies. So for the guy who's yelling in the clip, the suit hinges on "copying a file is not a photocopy," and for the other side the intent is "we already have these multiple technologies bundled under "photocopies," copying to a disk should be wrapped in there too."

So one side is trying to show "you have a photocopy machine, it's not the computer, those are different," and the other side is "it's not a photocopy machine, it's a Xerox machine, but it's accepted as legally making photocopies for $2-4 per page (info differs), since it's the law that specifies what the county records office is allowed to charge for photocopies."

If the law said "copies" instead of "photocopies," the charge to copy to CD would be defensible, so they want to show it's equivalent.

[Socratov]

Psh. Photocopies were for those kids and their new-fangled copying machines. Waaay back in the day, we made copies by hand!


To be honest, I make most of my sheets by hand because I'm too lazy to print them out and I know what info I need.

I usually keep a Mythweavers sheet s the master sheet and before play fill 1 A4 with everything I need (mostly crunch), inclusing spells. any info beyond that is on my laptop which I only use for checking stuff liks spell descriptions and so on.

[Kurt Kurageous]

Psh. Photocopies were for those kids and their new-fangled copying machines. Waaay back in the day, we made copies by hand!

And in the the time before the waaay back day, we used graph paper and wrote out out stat blocks, hit points, bonuses to hit, etc on our own paper. The premade sheets sucked.

Now the premade sheets don't suck, copiers are plentiful, and the e-versions are amazing time savers. I'm not even going to say that it's too easy, something is lost, the worth of anything is in the work, etc. "You kids get off my lawn!" That time saved can now be spent on crafting a better back story and falling in love with your creation, making the experience better still.

I don't miss AC10 and 2HP wizards.

[KorvinStarmast]

Psh. Photocopies were for those kids and their new-fangled copying machines. Waaay back in the day, we made copies by hand!Waaay back in the day, we used 3x5 cards, pencils, and erasers. We didn't need a whole sheet of paper. Casters used a second card for spells.

[smcmike]

*ahem*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZbqAMEwtOE

Worth it.

This is awesome.


The context does actually make sense.

http://loweringthebar.net/2011/03/followup-on-the-great-photocopy-dispute.html

County wanted to charge per page for copying records to a CD the same as it cost to photocopy the pages. However, the law only specified they could charge for photocopies. So for the guy who's yelling in the clip, the suit hinges on "copying a file is not a photocopy," and for the other side the intent is "we already have these multiple technologies bundled under "photocopies," copying to a disk should be wrapped in there too."

So one side is trying to show "you have a photocopy machine, it's not the computer, those are different," and the other side is "it's not a photocopy machine, it's a Xerox machine, but it's accepted as legally making photocopies for $2-4 per page (info differs), since it's the law that specifies what the county records office is allowed to charge for photocopies."

If the law said "copies" instead of "photocopies," the charge to copy to CD would be defensible, so they want to show it's equivalent.

And thanks for this explanation. The refusal of the deponent to answer basic questions really makes more sense when you realize what a weasel-like position he is trying to protect.

[Dizlag]

A character sheet can tell a LOT about a roleplaying system and having it at the back of the PHB makes this information available. Without even knowing anything about a system you can tell from the character sheet whether its a level based system, how complex the skill system is and if it includes Fighting or Shooting or Throwing as a skill (I'm looking at you Savage Worlds), whether there is magic in the system, and can probably gleen how combat works. Is there Armor Class or a Soak value? How many Wounds or Hit Points would you have? Those kinds of things.

Dizlag